Frisco Exide hearings expose a big problem: Jim Schermbeck

I admire the enthusiasm of environmental activist Jim Schermbeck, the leader of Downwinders at Risk. He is smart. He gets people fired up. He informs them of the dangers in their midst from lead smelters and gas fracking operations. Information is good. Enthusiasm is good. We need more people to be involved, and Jim certainly helps get people going.

But at a Frisco hearing last night, a man in the audience stood up, hovered angrily over Schermbeck, flailing his arms as he said something that needed to be said a long time ago: “I’m telling you to shut up so these other people can ask their questions.” (Go to the 1:20 mark in this video.)

I’ve watched Schermbeck in action before. He really does tend to dominate the conversation with one-sided rants and unconfirmed data. His group’s press releases are overblown and not credible. He can be extremely disruptive at meetings, with apparent disregard and obvious disrespect for Robert’s Rules of Order. He needs to take a good, hard look at his approach and ask whether there’s a more subtle and more effective way to achieve his goals.

The public doesn’t need exaggerated assertions and grandiose statements of the environmental dangers among us. The public does need information from experts. I’ve watched Schermbeck offer such a long and expansive introduction to one such expert that, when it came time for the expert himself to speak, he had run out of time and had to rush his presentation. Schermbeck did himself and his cause no favors.

Schermbeck risks driving away people who really do support what he’s trying to accomplish. Sorry to deliver this message in such a public forum, Jim, but I want to make sure you have properly processed the message from the Frisco hearing: You’ve made your point. Now cool it so other people can talk and ask questions.

UPDATE: I’ve been asked by Jim Schermbeck to substantiate the assertions I make above. Some examples follow on the next page:

Following are examples taken from five press releases issued by Jim Schermbeck’s environmental groups. All bold face and italics copy are from the original releases. My response follows each.

EPA Sabotages New Cement Plant Pollution Rules At Last Minute

For Immediate Release:

11:30 am Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

In a move that left clean air activists mystified and angry, the Obama Administration announced late Monday that it was re-writing new pollution rules for cement plant pollution on the eve of their implementation, including delaying compliance by two years, almost doubling the soot pollution standard, and giving up trying to monitor that pollution in real time.

“What the cement industry, radical House Republicans, and the courts could not do, EPA has accomplished on its own. The question is why would it betray citizens it promised to bring relief to with the adoption of these new rules two years ago?,”asked Jim Schermbeck, Director of the North Texas clean air group Downwinders at Risk, which has played a major role over the last 20 years in getting the rules adopted.

Midlothian Texas, immediately south of Dallas, hosts the largest concentration of cement plants in the US,with three huge plants owned by TXI, Holcim, and Ash Grove operating a total six kilns, or furnaces within a few miles of each other.All three have permits to burn used tires and other industrial waste besides coal. They are the largest stationary sources of air pollution in North Texas.

My response: The word “sabotage” in the headline is extremely misleading. First of all, these were proposals, not actions, at the time this was written. The Obama administration did not, in fact, announce that it was rewriting new pollution rules in the way you stated. And when the actual new rules came out in December, the EPA imposed stricter standards on cement plants. You lose credibility when you use exaggerated wording to make mere proposals appear to be concrete actions and also suggest nefarious motives are behind those proposals.

—————————–

Citizen Groups To Take Frisco Lead Smelter to Court for Environmental Crimes

For Immediate Release:

7 am July 16th, 2012

(Frisco)—– Citing a lengthy list of unresolved federal violations, citizen groups tired of waiting for EPA to enforce the law at the Exide lead smelter in Frisco are gearing up to do it themselves.

Members of Frisco Unleaded and Downwinders at Risk gathered at 9:30 this morning in front of the Frisco Post Office on Stonebrook Parkway to mail “Notice of Intent” letters to Exide corporate representatives, EPA, and state environmental administrators. The actioninitiates the official 90-day notice required under federal law before the groups can step into the shoes of regulators and file a “Citizens Suit” to prosecute the smelter for violating the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and the Resource and Conservation Recovery Act.

My response: The headline says you have taken the Frisco smelter to court, when in fact all you did was file a notice of intent. That is misleading. And when you put “environmental crimes” in the headline, you imply that criminal activity has occurred at the smelter. I cannot find any court record of criminal proceedings against Exide in Frisco. The text of your press release only refers to environmental violations, not crimes. A private lawsuit, or intent to file a private lawsuit, is not equivalent to a criminal prosecution. This overreaching word choice is not factual and causes you to lose credibility.

————————————-

Study: Gas Drilling “Significantly” Increasing DFW Smog

8 am Tuesday

September 4th, 2012

In the middle of another bad North Texas ozone season, a new study by a Houston research consortium concludes that Barnett Shale natural gas facilities “significantly” raise smog levels in DFW, affecting air quality far downwind.
According to the study, ozone impacts from gas industry pollution are so large, they’ll likely keep North Texas from being able to achieve the EPA’s new 75 parts per billion (ppb) ozone standard.

Author Eduardo P. Olaguer, a Senior Research Scientist and Director of Air Quality Research at the Houston Advanced Research Center, concludes that, “Major metropolitan areas in or near shale formations will be hard pressed to demonstrate future attainment of the federal ozone standard, unless significant controls are placed on emissions from increased oil and gas exploration and production…. urban drilling and the associated growth in industry emissions may be sufficient to keep the area (DFW) in nonattainment.”

My response: First of all, thank you for bringing Eduardo into our office. I would have liked to hear more from Eduardo but, unfortunately, we ran out of time after you left our meeting. Eduardo’s study was fascinating, and his technology for identifying emissions plumes is something I’d like to write more about. However, he was very clear that his study was not definitive. It warned of “potential” air quality problems. But your use of active verbs in your headline and opening sentence make it appear as fact that these significant increases are happening. And Eduardo was cautious in his language — being careful not to directly blame gas drilling operations but saying the “appeared to implicate oil and gas activities.” You recast his study as the definitive proof. (“This study is proof we need a regional strategy of self-defense to reduce air pollution from the gas industry,“ said Downwinders at Risk Director Jim Schermbeck ….) You lose credibility when you do this. You also lose credibility when you proceed for most of the rest of your press release to quote yourself instead of the expert, Eduardo Olaguer. If he’s the expert, perhaps he should be doing the talking.

———————–

Gas Refinery Next to Elm Fork Soccer Field Would Be Instant Top Ten Air Polluter

For Immediate Release:

9 am January 8th, 2013

(Dallas)— Under the guise of “gas drilling,” Dallas City Hall and industry are pressing for approval of a permit that would locate a gas refinery only 600 feet from the new Elm Fork soccer complex, and immediately give birth to one of the ten largest air polluters in the City of Dallas, as well as one of its most toxic.

“There’s a huge toxic Trojan Horse hiding in what the City and Trinity East describe as just a gas drilling permit,” charged clean air activist Jim Schermbeck of Downwinders at Risk. “In fact, the Elm Fork permit allows for the building of a gas refinery that houses at least three giant compressors as well as an entire acid gas removal unit that strips off hydrogen sulfide, one of the most dangerous substances in the gas patch.”

My response: Not credible because it mixes hyperbole (“toxic Trojan horse”) with speculation on what would be — only if certain highly specific conditions come to pass. And it is based on worst-case scenarios of how an acid gas removal unit would function and worst-case scenarios of emissions from such a unit. You, Jim Schermbeck, appear to be quoting yourself on what this means. That’s not credible. Further in the release, you talk about a study in Houston about possible downwind ozone levels from a single gas compressor. Then you talk about what could be the greenhouse gas emissions in Dallas. Putting all of this and more under the headline “… Instant Top Ten Air Polluter” is misleading by assuming it would, no matter what, pollute in the worst way possible.

————————

With End of 2012 Ozone Season, TCEQ’s Clean Air Plan for DFW Fails…Again

For Immediate Release: 9 am MondayNovember 5th, 2012

…

November 1st marked the official end of the eight-month 2012 ozone season. According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, its plan was supposed to deliver record-breaking clean air to DFW this summer on its way to bringing the region into compliance with the Clean Air Act for the first time in two decades.

Instead, six of the 20 ozone monitors in North Texas recorded levels of smog at or above the now-discarded 1997 standard of 85 parts per billion (ppb), while 17 of them recorded violations of the stricter new health-based 75ppb standard that will take effect in 2018.

Clean air activists were anything but surprised.

They accused the state plan of being designed to fail by a politicized TCEQ to avoid any new pollution controls on industry at a time when Governor Perry was running for President. Relying mainly on new car sales projections, TCEQ engineers assured local leaders that pollution levels would go down as older vehicles were traded-in for newer, cleaner ones.

“Since this ‘plan’ primarily rested on the hope that lots of people would buy new cars, no serious-thinking person thought it would work “ said Jim Schermbeck of DFW-based Downwinders at Risk.“Unfortunately, after 12 years of Rick Perry’s leadership, the TCEQ is in short supply of serious-thinkers.”

My response: I can’t find where TCEQ promised “record-breaking clean air” for DFW. That doesn’t seem like wording the commission would use. Your press release doesn’t offer a citation. I don’t doubt the figures that you cite in this press release, but when you start with a straw-horse premise and proceed to knock it down, you lose credibility. Worse, when you state that “clean air activists were anything but surprised,” then proceed to quote only yourself, you lose credibility.

Editor Picks

Comments

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.

Ad:TopLeftBlog

Ad: Position1

Archives Title

Archives

ArchivesAbout this blog

About this Blog

The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board was the first editorial board in the nation to use a blog to openly discuss hot topics and issues among its members and with readers. Our intent is to pull back the curtain on the daily process of producing the unsigned editorials that reflect the opinion of the newspaper, and to share analysis and opinion on issues of interest to board members and invited guest bloggers.